Township advertising to hire assessment officer

July 22, 2014

ALPENA -The Alpena Township Board of Trustees is advertising for a Michigan certified assessing officer to take the place of Erica Dean, who is retiring in September. Township Supervisor Marie Twite brought Dean's request for retirement to a special board meeting Monday afternoon, and the board approved the request, saying it may be difficult to find a qualified replacement.

"All of Alpena County is under a 14-point review by the state right now, where they check to make sure things are being done properly," Twite said. "MCA assessors are becoming hard to find, and advertising will hopefully help us find someone who is qualified."

The appraiser/clerical position will be available Sept. 15 and would be a full-time job.

The board also accepted the request of Ann Rich to step down from her position on the board of review, and the township will be advertising for someone to fill that place.

Department of Public Works Director Jerry Bleau will be taking courses to become a paid on-call volunteer firefighter with Wilson and Alpena township fire departments. Bleau works closely with the township department already through his job as DPW director, and Twite said would be beneficial to have at fires that could affect the water system.

"We have lost five people at the department, and are looking for other who would like to fill up our roster," Twite said. "He would be a benefit to the department."

In other business:

* the board discussed the idea of the proposed authority in the south corridor during workshop.